Friday, January 25, 2013

All the publicity this week about the release of Dave's Pick's Vol 5. gave me a good excuse to bring out another 1973 gem to play on the Deadpod..

This week's show took place about a month after the 11/17/73 show featured on Dave's Picks - this one is from 12/18/73 at the Curtis Hixon Convention Hall in Tampa FL. - yes the night before the show featured on Dick's Picks Vol 1! I know - finding these beauties that haven't been released is getting harder -but this is a wonderful show and I am sure that those of us who enjoy this stellar period in GD history will enjoy it. I'll play set 1 this week and follow it next week with set 2. This one features some fine renditions of classic tunes - the Tennessee Jed, Brown Eyed Women and Deal are wonderful.. and don't dare miss the China->Rider - that transition is GREAT!

..... and yes its simply a coincidence that i'm playing florida shows in the DEAD of winter :)

Friday, January 18, 2013

I think this is a really nice second set from the great Fall of 1980 tour.. it contains some of my favorite songs and I think that Jerry and the band do them all justice. In particular the opening 'Feel Like A Stranger' however the following 'To Lay Me Down' is just too short and too sweet... The Let It Grow is back to full throtle Dead, and flows into a short but sweet Terrapin Station..

While the rest of the set may not match the pre-Drums peak, its still certainly worth listening to and remembering what moments of beauty there were....

Friday, January 11, 2013

I've been wanting to play something from this time period for some time, and while I previously presented part of a show from a couple nights later, this recording captures quite well the bands' energy and talents during the tour from the late Fall of 1980. We'll listen to the first set this week, which features a really fine 'Little Red Rooster' as well as a superb version of 'Looks Like Rain'. The set closing 'Deal' is raging...

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do, we'll listen to set 2 next week...

Friday, January 04, 2013

Normally I wouldn't publish two consecutive Jerry shows on the Deadpod.. but this week's show is not a normal tape - this is a top-shelf recording of Jerry and Merle at the top of their game.. this is simply a wonderful recording of a superlative performance. Once I listened to this I knew I should share it as soon as possible - hence it became the choice for this week's Deadpod. This show was apparently originally advertised as an Old and In The Way performance - however its clearly Jerry and Merle Saunders. It supposedly was one of the tapes written about in the New Yorker article by Nick Paumgarten (that you can read here). This was one of the Betty Cantor-Jackson tapes that was discovered in a trunk, but lucky for us was saved and restored by a professional recording engineer.. Not only is this a wonderful performance but a magnificent recording.. while its a bit longer than I would have liked (only when thinking of my hosting quota!) it is certainly well worth it.. The music itself defies easy categorization.. classic Jerry and Merle, but there is so much improvisation and creativity that we really can't label parts of this performance..

Finally my most sincere thanks to those of you who are able to assist the Deadpod with your financial contributions.. thank you SO much! I certainly couldn't get the Deadpod out each week without your help!